''Descurainia californica'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The le ...

known by the common name Sierra tansymustard. This plant is native to western North America from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

. It is a resident of varied habitats from mountain forest to sage scrub. This spindly mustardlike plant has a single thin stem which branches and may reach over half a meter in height. Its sparse leaves are divided into two to four pairs of dull green lobes each one to six centimeters long. The tiny bunched flowers at the tip of each stem are bright yellow. The fruit is a tiny podlike

silique A silique or siliqua (plural ''siliques'' or ''siliquae'') is a type of fruit (seed capsule) having two fused carpels with the length being more than three times the width. When the length is less than three times the width of the dried fruit i ...

on a straight

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

. Pedicels holding fruits stick out from the stem at intervals.

External links

Calflora: ''Descurainia californica'' (Sierra tansy mustard)Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfilePhoto gallery
californica Flora of California Flora of Nevada Flora of the Great Basin Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Taxa named by Asa Gray Plants described in 1865 Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Brassicales-stub